The joy over the resumption of the opium trade and the cheap commissioning of new merchant ships for the newly opened Northeast Asian trade did not last long.
For months, the opium department had conducted transactions without a single problem.Yet now the man responsible for it, Lyall, could not understand what was happening.
"What kind of nonsense is this! Are you telling me that Brown's company just vanished into thin air?!"
"It… it's true, sir. When the payment deadline passed, we went to check the office and found it completely empty."
"They must have stepped out. There's no rule saying someone has to stay in the office at all times—"
"The furniture was gone as well. Everything had been removed. And when we investigated further, every trace of the company had been erased. As if it had never existed in the first place…"
What in the world was going on?
Did this mean someone had just committed fraud against the East India Company?
But the more he thought about it, the stranger it seemed.
Fraud normally had one purpose—money.
But what exactly had Anthony Brown gained from this scheme?
The payment for the £50,000 worth of opium they had already delivered had been paid in full.
Meanwhile the £100,000 worth of opium currently in production had not even been collected.
In other words, the fraudsters had gained nothing at all.
"They did all this just to screw us over? No… that makes even less sense."
Fabricating a company's history and falsifying accounting records to make it appear legitimate would have required enormous manpower and money.
It made no sense that all of it had been done simply to inconvenience them.
Especially when the perpetrators themselves had clearly suffered losses.
"What should we do now?" one subordinate asked nervously. "We already ordered the farmers to increase opium production."
"What do you mean what should we do?! Cancel it immediately!"
"But production has already begun. At least for this quarter, we'll have to accept that the inventory will pile up…"
"This is madness! What kind of grudge did that bastard Brown have against us to do something like this?!"
No matter how he thought about it, nothing made sense.
But the problem had grown too large to hide.
There was no choice but to report everything to the board of directors and somehow find a way to salvage the situation.
Meanwhile, in Bombay, the trade department was practically celebrating.
The news that Bengal had once again suffered huge losses in the opium business delighted them.
"Ha! So after all that arrogance they've taken another huge loss, have they? They kept bragging that Bengal was the center of the East India Company. Looks like their end has finally come."
"Exactly. They strutted around like kings just because that opium trade made them money. Now they're finished."
"Isn't it strange that the Governor-General still resides in that dying place? Maybe we should petition the government to move the governor's residence here."
"Excellent idea. With Japan and Korea opening their ports, the Asian market will only grow larger. London must already know which region has the brighter future."
Unlike Bengal, which had been fooled by a crude swindler and suffered enormous losses, Bombay's business operations were running smoothly.
The large merchant ship contracts had even saved more than 15 percent of the expected budget, proving their competence again and again.
The center of the East India Company would soon be Bombay, not Bengal.
Among the company's employees, sympathy for their colleagues had never existed in the first place.
If the other side collapsed, it simply meant a larger share of profits for themselves.
That was the spirit of the East India Company.
News of the company's situation did not take long to reach Britain.
After all, the Indian market was one in which nearly every member of the British upper class had invested at least once.
Recently, at the request of the Baring family, I had even delivered a speech in Parliament urging greater attention to Indian affairs.
Because of that, both politicians and ordinary citizens had already begun paying closer attention to India.
So when a scandal erupted almost immediately afterward, there was no reason for Parliament to ignore it.
I could not appear to be leading the effort myself.
But since Parliament had summoned me as a witness, I had no difficulty observing the proceedings directly.
"This matter must not be ignored!" Benjamin Disraeli thundered. "Rumors about the East India Company's failing condition are already shaking the British stock market!"
Members of both the Conservative and Whig parties applauded.
Some MPs even slammed their desks in anger while cursing the company's executives.
Judging from their reactions, many of them must have lost quite a bit of money.
My condolences.
"The company's deficits grow every year through reckless management," Disraeli continued. "They cannot even repay the funds borrowed from the government. And now we discover that they attempted to revive the declining opium trade, dramatically increasing production—only to suffer losses worth tens of thousands of pounds! Can anyone here understand such behavior?"
"It makes no sense!"
"They claim they were victims of fraud," another MP shouted, "but the story is full of contradictions!"
"I agree," Disraeli replied. "What kind of swindler runs a scam where both sides lose money? This cannot be an ordinary fraud case. Something corrupt must be involved. The East India Company manages not only public funds but the investments of countless citizens. Yet its board seems to believe the company is their private property. This corrupt practice must be eradicated!"
"Mr. Disraeli is right!"
"The East India Company must face a national investigation!"
"The innocent shareholders must not suffer because of the board's tyranny!"
As the chamber filled with angry voices—MPs who wrote innocent shareholders but clearly meant themselves—Disraeli played the trump card I had given him.
"And the corruption may not be limited to Bengal," he declared. "I have received an anonymous internal report claiming that Bombay is secretly creating illegal slush funds."
"Slush funds? What do you mean?"
"Many of you have heard that Bombay recently commissioned a large number of merchant ships to expand Asian trade. But according to this report, the ships were never meant to be built at all."
Francis Baring jumped to his feet in shock.
"What do you mean? They ordered several new armed merchant ships! Our bank even provided loans, and there were no procedural issues!"
"Of course there weren't," Disraeli replied calmly. "Because the entire scheme was carefully designed. A fake company was created and allowed to win the bid. The East India Company then transferred the deposit. Afterward the company declared bankruptcy—and the deposit was quietly hidden as slush funds for the board."
"That's absurd! Do you have any evidence?"
"Of course I do. Investigators checked the London headquarters of the company called Asia Shipping. It does not exist. It exists only on paper. The ships it supposedly built were entirely fabricated. And most importantly, the East India Company paid this nonexistent company a 20 percent deposit."
"Well, that was because they offered much cheaper construction costs—"
Baring's face turned pale.
His bank might have lost a great deal of money.
But Disraeli brushed the objection aside.
"A convenient excuse. And a proper investigation will soon reveal whether this whistleblower is telling the truth. The evidence is already quite clear."
"In that case, I fully support an investigation!" Baring shouted. "If this is true, the East India Company has deceived not only its shareholders but the banks as well! This must not be tolerated!"
"Exactly," Disraeli continued. "For too long Parliament and the government have entrusted enormous power and privilege to a single company in the name of governing India. But everything that stagnates eventually rots. We must uncover the truth and cut away any corruption like diseased flesh."
"If a rotten limb is left untreated, the infection spreads to the entire body. Before the East India Company endangers the Empire itself, we must resolve this matter swiftly. A national investigation into the East India Company!"
"Hear, hear!"
"Send investigators immediately!"
The House of Commons erupted in applause.
Few things in the world were more frightening than the anger of people who had lost money.
The Baring family, which had provided massive loans for the merchant ships.
The Whig Party, which expected campaign funding from the Barings.
And countless MPs who had invested their own money in the company.
Their voices united in overwhelming support.
With nearly unanimous approval—so overwhelming that the Speaker did not even bother counting the votes—Parliament passed a bill establishing an official investigative commission into the East India Company.
To ensure impartiality, the commission would include representatives from the government, the opposition, and the royal family.
Of course, the MPs who voted for the investigation likely did not imagine the East India Company would be destroyed.
They simply expected to replace a few incompetent executives and issue a stern warning.
But the situation had already passed far beyond that point.
The eagerly anticipated investigation began.
Backed by the government, Parliament, and the Crown, the investigators descended upon the East India Company like messengers of death.
Yet the company's leadership still believed themselves to be victims.
"What nonsense! Illegal slush funds? A staged fraud? We are the victims here!"
"That is exactly what we intend to determine," an investigator replied calmly. "The true victims are the honest shareholders in Britain who entrusted their money to your company."
"Then investigate all you like!"
"We intend to."
The investigators immediately seized every document they could find.
At first, the board of directors raised no objection.
They believed the investigation would prove their innocence.
But then—
"Large quantities of opium have been discovered on an island near the Maldives. The amount exactly matches the shipment supposedly sold to Brown's company!"
"And Indian banks have confirmed that large sums of money were recently deposited under the names of several board members!"
With each discovery, the whistleblower's claims proved accurate.
Shock spread across Britain.
If this had been happening for years, how much money had been siphoned into the pockets of the directors?
Newspapers exploded with headlines.
[SHOCKING! The East India Company's hidden face exposed! A staged fraud used for illegal enrichment!]
[Are shareholders fools? The corruption of the East India Company revealed!]
From that moment onward, no one trusted the company's financial reports.
If this scandal was real, who knew how many other losses had been concealed?
"Dissolve the East India Company!"
"Punish those rotten bastards and hand India to someone competent!"
The anger of investors spread from London across the entire British Empire.
The giant that had dominated nations for more than two centuries—
Fell in less than one year.